If you are unfamiliar with Wednesday’s dramatic events that happened to Qantas, Austrialia’s national airline that has never had a fatal accident, the events are nicely chronicled on this post from Tnooz, a news and analysis site on the travel industry.
Condensed summary:
- Qantas A380 makes a safe emergency return landing in Singapore after a Rolls-Royce made engine broke apart minutes after takeoff.
- Passengers aboard the plane quickly Tweet and upload photos of videos of the engine and emergency landing efforts.
- Reuters reports that CNBC television learns of a plane crashing near Singapore.
- Note: I could not evidence of a misreported crash anywhere on a CNBC website – beware of media sourcing media!
- People on the ground on the small island of Batam upload photos of logoed engine parts (around the same time Qantas may have told Australian media there were no signs of wreckage)
- On Wednesday evening, Qantas posted updates to its Facebook page. The same night, one Tweet from its travel-tips account redirects inquiries to official Qantas channels, and its U.S.- targeted Twitter account adds a link the next day.
The Tnooz reporter concludes that the airline could have done more on Twitter to reassure the public. Ragan.com’s Matt Wilson calls the situation “Qantas’s big #fail in quelling tweeted rumors of a crash.” Crisisblogger Gerald Baron raises good questions and challenges, but ultimately grades the situation a C- to F grade.
In my view, Qantas deserves a little more deliberation on its deliberation.